Creative Director & Photographer · London
Portrait-led
visual work
for brands &
publications
Curated
Projects
15 years of international campaigns and editorial commissions. Every image made to hold more than surface.
London-based.
Portrait-driven.
Internationally active.
I'm Yiğit Günel, creative director, photographer, and founder of Cult Studio. I make portrait-led work for brands and publications, with a focus on clear visual storytelling. My practice spans photography, creative direction, and motion, shaped by what the brief needs and what will serve the story best.
My earliest understanding of photography came from my father’s darkroom. In its darkness, images slowly appeared from almost nothing, revealing details that had already existed but had gone unnoticed. That experience continues to shape the way I work. Photography, for me, is a form of observation: a way of standing just outside a moment and looking closely at the people, gestures and relationships within it. I am interested in the spaces people create around themselves, the ways they belong to groups and places, and the subtle exchanges that reveal something about a wider culture. Whether photographing a portrait, a gathering or a community, I am less interested in describing what something looks like than in understanding what is happening beneath the surface. The camera remains a kind of camera obscura: a small, quiet space from which I can observe the world, question it, and make connections between individuals and the environments they inhabit.
- On The Road, Versus Arts, London, 2026
- Capital of Loneliness, Bursa International FotoFest, 2026
- Selfhood, Versus Arts, London, 2025
- New Photography, Alan Istanbul, 2015
- Cult Creative Meet-ups, ongoing monthly, 2024 - 2026
- The Photographic Aproach, EOG University, 2026
- Where to Start?, Medipol University, 2022
- Storytelling Through Photography, Istanbul Bilgi University, 2017
- Photographing a Rebellion, Ozcan Yurdalan
- Moscow Diary, self-publication
- Beyoglu Photographs, Photography Foundation
Crystal Apple 1st Prize (2016)
Cult Studio
a creative
solutions company
Cult is a creative solutions company focused on visual storytelling. We help brands build or reshape their stories through photography, motion, and creative direction — collaborating with specialist talent to bring ideas to life in meaningful, inspiring ways. Humble, yet sleek.
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